On Being Asked To Write A Poem Against The War In Vietnam Poem by Hayden Carruth
On Being Asked To Write A Poem Against The War In Vietnam
Well I have and in fact
more than one and I'll
tell you this too
I wrote one against
Algeria that nightmare
and another against
Korea and another
against the one
I was in
and I don't remember
how many against
the three
when I was a boy
Abyssinia Spain and
Harlan County
and not one
breath was restored
to one
shattered throat
mans womans or childs
not one not
one
but death went on and on
never looking aside
except now and then
with a furtive half-smile
to make sure I was noticing.
Well, history Here we are, Hayden, at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and sizing up Yemen as I write. I came on this poem of Carruth on my way to Google up information about The Week of the Angry Arts that took place in NYC around 1967, a big event that engaged scores and maybe hundreds of writers and artists in public readings, displays, and performances through a full week. Now here in snowbound northern Vermont, some of us are toying with ideas about artists here collaborating on protest with pen and brush against our rising habit of war.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/17/2024 10:32:06 PM # 1.0.0.1119
when was the poem made